The Scottish Parliament’s Presiding Officer Ken Macintosh doesn’t think that Holyrood is broken, but ‘in need of an MOT’. Car owners know all too well that sometimes an MOT ends up identifying major problems that need significant – and expensive – work.

Laura Cram discusses how retaining membership of the single market and free movement are at the top of the Scottish Government’s Brexit wish list. This post originally appeared on The UK in a Changing Europe.

The Scottish government is indignant over its Brexit plans. If the Scots don't get a say, will they attempt to break free from Great Britain? Featuring Professor Nicola McEwen, Associate Director, Centre on Constitutional Change

For the Scottish government the twin goals of withdrawing from the UK and remaining in the European Union are challenging but potentially attainable. The prospect is not a unicorn vision like the belief that it is possible to leave the EU while keeping current benefits of remaining in the single European market. The Scottish government’s strategy is about sequencing: withdraw first from the UK so that an independent Scotland can then remain a member state of the EU.

The EU referendum result has fundamentally reshaped the Scottish independence debate, and the new draft referendum bill is a both political and practical step by the Scottish Government, writes Peter Lynch. He observes that, in this unpredictable constitutional environment, Brexit has created opportunities for the SNP to engage with those who haven’t previously contemplated Scottish independence. This blog originally appeared on European Futures.

What are the points of contention in establishing different relationships for Scotland and rUK with the EU? Dr Kirsty Hughes works her way through the details.

Nicola Sturgeon has set out a clear demand that Scotland should stay in the EU’s single market, even if the rest of the UK (rUK) leaves, as part of the UK’s Brexit deal with the EU. Sturgeon has yet to set out the details of how she thinks this could happen but the big questions are already clear.

In the first of our new blog series, Politics in a Changing Spain, Dr Robert Liñeira (Universidad Autónoma de Madrid) looks at the recent parliamentary election and its implications for the future of Spanish politics.

In their contribution to our majority nationalism series, Antoine Bilodeau of Concordia University and Luc Turgeon of the University of Ottawa share the result of their survey which compares the way in which Quebecers and Canadians construct community boundaries.